Reviews

As soon as I glanced at the title of a disc from SECOND VIOLIN (Adam Bohman, Zan Hoffman and Jeff Surak), the first name that came to may mind was Nurse With Wound, which should not be surprising if we take such titles as 'dinner music on an empty stomach: first course' or 'horse pill feud of madness'. But that is not the main reason Stapleton's aficionados, and not only they, are quite likely to be fascinated by this album. In no more no less than sixty minutes the three guys regale us with multi-layered collages consisting of clashes, jangles, rustles, scratches, human voices, bizarre tunes and what have you. All of those are conscientiously arranged so that they safely balance between intensiveness and uninteresting simplicity. Although you can feel the experience of those old stagers almost in every second of it, it definitely fails to be one of those "more of the same" things. An interesting music indeed. ~
[Przemek Chojnacki] - Eld Rich Palmer Issue 10

There are 10 tracks on the cd, 8 identified on the sleeve. These split in two groups: three long improvisations and 7 shorter pieces based on the voice. A very brief chopped word introduction before "Serenade" with semirhythmic banged drum, a pulsing squeak from which notes emerge and then chopped fragmented words ending in a big buzz. "Dinner music on an empty stomach: first course" is the first big improvisation. The first part combines ambient machines, a distant sawing, wind rapid chippy noises (backwards sounds? Quite a bit on this album sounds reversed) and a developing active sawing (violin is obvious too). A longer section takes a slow and fast looping pulses and lays them against each other, static yet slowly changing. Suddenly, after an extended period the tone changes, the slower drops out and the shorter becomes more abrasive and we shift into a period of activity pulses, denser buzzing, strings, longer tones swirling stability; then finally chittering loops from which a melody briefly emerges. A deep tone and thin shimmers, out of which the voice (male, unusual accent, slightly slowed?) talks about forgetting to record an improv and a "Chocolate bar", and is looped and mixed into the noises and an echoed tapping. More voice chopped (talking about a prepared violin) in "The room" against and within an increasing backdrop of pings, scrapes, chitters and percussion. Then the second long piece "Horse pill feud of madness". A distant violin joins a lyrical buzz and descending percussion, and plosive syllables are transformed into fireworks. Cycling scrapes and dits decrease into a soft buzz which pulses and develops, then flutters and pulses of percussed strings; the popping returns and then fades again to a tone. Rising and falling density, drones and edgy harshness, a guitar to fade. "Purpose" rise and falls, a tapping and high strings and the voice emerges. Which in the very short "Colours" lists loops and alters a statement of them. Then "Dinner music on an empty stomach: second helping" is a long weaving of pulsing and shimmering tones, some clickings, occasional harsh tones, some periods of fast choppy violin (sped up) hyperactive and then turntabling variations. Much of it seems to be the backwards sound the first course reversed? It ends with a long silence before a very odd coda. Samples of films are responded to in a very exaggerated accent before our narrator apologises for "making fun of Americans" each time. Again, very complex yet also quite melodic, with plenty of depth to plumb over time. The black cds won me over to start with, but the music provides fascination of its own. None of these three are easy listening, but they are stimulating. ~
[Jeremy Keens] - Ampersand Etcetera - 2001_19